Gluttony is Good

I have a new guilty pleasure: Man vs. Food. No, it's not a PBS show about pre-historic man's never-ending quest to fill his stomach. Man vs. Food is a new Travel Channel show in which a likable somewhat rotund every-guy named Adam Richman travels the nation in search of the best pig-out food. At the conclusion of each episode, he undertakes a food "challenge" in which he tries to become one of a handful of people to eat the biggest sandwich in Columbus, Ohio (see photo) or scarf down an entire bowl of the hottest curry served in the United States, so hot the cook has to wear a gas mask to prepare it.

Adam is the Gorden Gecko of overeating: Gluttony is good. This guy's bowels must like the parking lot of the Meadowlands after an Ozzie Osborne concert.

The Puritan within tells me I should be horrified. Adam glorifies overeating of fatty, greasy, unhealthful foods as the nation struggles with an epidemic of obesity.

Then again, maybe that's a little silly. I mean, what am I saying, this guy's some kind of "role model" to kids? I can't deny the show is immensely entertaining in a train wreck sort of way. And much of the food, while it's not something you should indulge in every day, looks delicious in that it's-2-am-and-I've-been-drinking kind of way.

Party on Adam. I await the next challenge.